The explosion, which went off at 11:50 p.m. on Monday, also started fire in cars and caused extensive damage to one of the Lebanese capital's posh districts.

Police said the injured boys aged 7 and 11. They said the others were all men.

Verdun is home to senior public personalities, including Information Minister Ghazi Aridi and former cabinet minister Najib Mikati. It also houses the renowned Dunes shopping center and the Russian Cultural Center, in addition to restaurants, schools and banks.

It was not clear whether the bomb was placed inside or under a parked four-wheel-drive vehicle, but police estimated the bomb was made up of 15 kilograms of explosives.

Television footage showed a car burning near a building as a fire engine doused the flames with water.

Several nearby cars had their windows blown out from the blast, and a high-floor apartment in a nearby building was in flames. Pieces of wood and glass littered the streets and hung from balconies, as security forces and civilians crowded the scene.

The daily Al Liwaa on Tuesday said a suspect in the Verdun bombing was now in police custody.

It said security sources identified him as Hussein Ahmad.

Al Liwaa said Ahmad confessed that another person, only identified as M.M., was also involved in the bombing, which came less than a day after a bomb near the ABC shopping mall in Ashrafiyeh killed a woman and wounded 12 others.

The violence came as Lebanese troops fought heavy battles with the Fatah al-Islam extremist group in northern Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared, in which more than 50 people were killed in the last two days.

Beirut and surrounding suburbs have been hit by a series of explosions in the last two years, particularly targeting Christian areas in which the pro-government majority coalition has blamed on Syria.

The explosions also come as the U.N. Security Council is considering whether to impose an international tribunal in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri after the government and the Hizbullah-led opposition failed to agree on approving it.

A U.N. investigation into the Hariri assassination has been expanded to include the series of bombings some blame on Syria. A U.N. probe has linked senior Syrian security officials and allies in the Lebanese security services to Hariri's 2005 truck bombing murder while Syria controlled Lebanon.

Damascus has denied involvement in Hariri's death and the other explosions, but Syria was forced to withdraw its army from Lebanon two months after the assassination, ending a 29-year presence.(Naharnet-AP)